San Antonio Springs
and Brackenridge Park

The San Antonio Springs are located mostly on the property of Incarnate Word University near San Pedro and Hildebrand Ave. There are several major spring outlets and thousands of small springs extending north into the Olmos Basin, and many still flow during wet times. The largest spring, called the Blue Hole, issues from a large cavern and is now surrounded by an octagonal concrete and stone wall (left).  Before Edwards wells were drilled, it was a fountain spring, with water gushing many feet in the air. Unlike the green shade that characterizes most waters from limestone aquifers, the Blue Hole does indeed sometimes have a blue tinge. After intense rainfalls, the springflows here can become very turbid and cloudy.

Early descriptions

In 1857, Frederick Olmsted perceived the entire discharge of the Springs to come from the Blue Hole and he described the natural beauty of the site:

...The San Antonio Spring may be classed as the first water among the gems of the natural world.  The whole river gushes up in one sparkling burst from the earth.  It has all the beautiful accompaniments of a smaller spring, moss, pebbles, seclusion, sparkling sunbeams, and dense overhanging luxuriant foliage.  The effect is overpowering.  It is beyond your possible conceptions of a spring.  You cannot believe your eyes, and almost shrink from sudden metamorphosis by invaded nymphdom.

Richard Everett provided an 1859 description of San Antonio Springs and also San Pedro springs, the other major natural discharge from the Edwards in San Antonio:

Two rivers wind through the city [San Antonio], flowing from the living springs only a short distance beyond the suburbs. One, the San Antonio, boils in a vast volume from a rocky basin, which, environed by mossy stones and overhanging foliage, seems devised for the especial dwelling-place of nymphs and naiads. The other, the San Pedro, runs from a little pond, formed by the outgushing of five sparkling springs, which bear the same name. This miniature lake, embowered in a grove of stately elm and pecan trees, is one of the most beautiful natural sheets of pure water in the Union - so clear, that even the delicate roots of the water-lilies and the smallest pebbles may be distinctly seen.

Locations of the various San Antonio Springs (adapted from Brune, 1981)

In the graphic above showing the locations of the various San Antonio Springs, the Blue Hole is the first one to the left of the swimming pool (which has now been converted to a sand volleyball court).  Just downstream, the flow joins Olmos Creek. In the graphic, Brune noted several large and medium additional springs, but none of them are well-defined orifices such as the Blue Hole. Between the Blue Hole and Olmos Dam, there are literally thousands of small springs.

Most of Olmos Creek between the Blue Hole and Olmos Dam is completely inaccessible when wet; when dry, thousands of small spring outlets are visible lining both banks (click on picture for a better look).

One of the thousands of small springs that flowed in 1992 when the Aquifer stood at a record high.

Native American uses

Prehistoric artifacts found near San Antonio Springs and in the Olmos Basin area point to a long history of occupation by native Americans.  Paleo-Indian projectile points over 11,000 years old have been found, along with burned rock middens and other lithic debris. 

Much of the evidence for prehistoric occupation comes from the work of Charles David Orchard, an avocational archaeologist who collected artifacts from the Olmos Basin for over 50 years, beginning in the 1920s.  He systematically documented his discoveries and also recorded his meetings with transient Indian groups who were still camping there in the late 1920s (Orchard, 1954).

Orchard reported seven places in what is now Olmos Park where prehistoric remains were found.  A large archaeological site that was probably the largest and most important in Bexar county was located north of the Blue Hole, on the site where Olmos Dam was completed in 1926.  The site was mostly destroyed by dam construction.  Prior to dam renovations in the 1980s, archaeologists found small segments of the site still intact.  A burial area was discovered adjacent to camp sites, and the remains of 13 natives were carefully excavated and documented, providing a wealth of information about their lives and customs. In the graphic below, the stippled areas are known archaeological sites, now protected by federal law. The Blue Hole is the dot labeled 41 BX 282.

European discovery

For over 100 years, many historians and scholars believed it likely that Cabeza de Vaca was the first European to encounter the Springs in the 1530s, but recent research has provided strong support for an opposing interpretation that most of de Vaca's escape route to Panuco was through Mexico, not Central Texas (Chipman, 1987 and Olson et al, 1997).  The first Spaniards known to have visited the Springs were members of a 1691 expedition led by Domingo Teran de los Rios and Father Damian Massanet.  On June 13 of that year they pitched camp alongside a group of friendly Payaya Indians at the River's headwaters.  It happened to be the day of Saint Anthony of Padua, and they named the spot San Antonio de Padua.

The area came to be known as the Head of the River, and it was apparently an important route in and out of San Antonio.  Sketch maps by David Orchard show a deeply worn old buffalo trail that descended into the Olmos Basin near the east end of the dam, and the Camino Real from Mexico to east Texas entered San Antonio here (Stothert, 1989).

Camp of the Lipans by Theodore Gentilz, 1840's

One of the earliest known descriptions of the Indians who fished and hunted in the area was written in 1716 by Franciscan missionary Fray Antonio de San Buenaventura:

They dress themselves in tanned deerskins, and the women the same, although they are covered to the feet.
The men spend little concern on their dress, as some of them go about naked.
They take part in mitotes, or dances, when they wish to go to war or when they have attained some victory over their enemies. They do this dance as if gripped by the hands by which they suffer various abuses, and these dances are causes of the murders which they commit on each other...
Their languages are different; only by means of signs are they understood among all the nations. They are governed, and conduct their trade, with signs.
Their customs are generally the same. Some are more spirited than others. They are very warlike among themselves, and they kill one another with ease, for things of little consequence, as they steal horses or women from each other.
Yet their presence is agreeable. They are of smiling countenance and are accommodating to the padres and Spaniards. When they come to their rancherieas they freely give them what they have to eat.
They are very fond of Spanish dress. Soldiers often give them a hat, cloak, trousers, or other garment in pay for the work they do....
Learning is easy for them, and they acquire use of the Spanish language with facility.

After the Spanish established missions in Bexar, they quickly set about devising an irrigation and water supply system using spring water.  The first canal dug at the San Antonio Springs was the Alamo Madre in 1745, and it diverted water from from the east side of the headwaters just below the Springs, in present-day Brackenridge Park. Until 1761 the Spanish missions utilized Spring water exclusively for all purposes.  In that year a well was dug at the Alamo as a precautionary measure against having access to the river cut off by hostile Indians.  Around 1776 a dam was built to divert springflows into a second canal, the Upper Labor ditch, which formed an interconnection with San Pedro Springs.

By the late 18th century, the Olmos Basin was surveyed and most tracts passed from Spanish to Anglo ownership.  During the period of the Texas Republic (1836-1845), the headwaters area was still wild and uninhabited, and there was considerable fear of Comanche Indians, who frequently staged raids into San Antonio and surrounding settlements.  In his memoirs, Maury Maverick provided a description of some adventurous young couples who took a joyride into hostile territory:

...ladies and all were armed with pistols and Bowie knives.  I rode with this party and some others around the Head of the San Antonio River.  We galloped up the west side, and paused at and above the head of the river long enough to view admire the lovely valley of the San Antonio.  The leaves had mostly fallen from the trees, and left the view open to the Missions below town.  We galloped home, down the east side, and doubted not that Indians watched us from the heavy timbers of the river bottom (Green, 1921).

Conflicts with Indians and fears of a Mexican re-invasion of Texas brought soldiers to town, and the headwaters was a preferred camping area.  William F. Wilson and his men camped here in 1839 (Pierce, 1969), and in 1840 William C. Cooke established "Camp Cooke" at San Antonio Springs and positioned some of his 1,200 men there (Dunn, 1975).  In the mid 1840s another camp, Camp Olmos, was home to local mounted militia and Texas Rangers attached to the US Army under General Zachary Taylor, who were preparing for war with Mexico.  In 1849, some of the troops that had fought with William Jennings Worth in Mexico camped around springs in San Antonio during a cholera epidemic in which Worth and 600 others died.  The campsite came to be known as "Worth's Spring", possibly referring to what many believe is the large spring at the northeast end of Olmos Dam (see the FAQ on Worth's Spring).

The lost town of Avoca

In 1840 an immigrant's guide to the new Republic of Texas advertised that:

Avoca is the name of a new town, laid out at the head springs of the San Antonio River.  The position of the town, the chrystalline and cool waters and the scenery, are declared to be beyond anything known, even in Texas (Press, 1840).

Avoca was a dream of William E. Howth, who settled in Texas in 1830 and received two-thirds of a league from the President of the Republic of Texas in 1838 as his "headright."  He was an active San Antonio businessman who bought and subdivided many properties as developments.  A 1936 newspaper article reported the town of Avoca was a forerunner of Alamo Heights, was founded in 1830 by "a small band of American settlers who found life in San Antonio burdened with the older Spanish settlers here at that time", and that Howth may have led the exodus. The article said that according to local tradition, Avoca was "a very select residential neighborhood, that also had a clubhouse, where historic persons frequently visited."  However, a 1972 article questioned the 1930 establishment date and asserted that most of Avoca was on the present-day Incarnate Word College property, with only a small portion in Alamo Heights.  Since two-thirds of a league is a very large area, and there are records of land transactions mentioning Avoca that stretch from Milam and Travis streets to downtown San Antonio, the true location has proven difficult to pin down.  Whether or not Avoca was actually occuped by a small group of Anglos escaping the Hispanic backdrop of San Antonio has not been conclusively determined (Furman, 1978).

In this early 20th century photo, military cadets Willard and Guy Simpson are climbing on ruins near the Olmos Dam that local legend says were one of the earliest houses in Avoca.

19th century land transactions

By 1850, San Antonio had declared that its boundaries extended as far as the headwaters of the San Antonio River, and Howth's headright was revoked.  In 1852 the city encountered financial difficulty and sold the property to J.R. Sweet, himself a city alderman, for $1,475.  The transaction was described by Dunn (1975):

...the City of San Antonio at public auction sold a quantity of land that had been marked off in lots on the Giraud survey map of the same year. Lots 30 and 31 at the Head of the River (in Range 1, District 2) went to Alderman James R. Sweet. City Engineer Giraud urged the city not to sell this property, since Lot 31 allegedly embraced "the North Springs," the main source of San Antonio's water supply. Two years later Sweet was reimbursed $85 of his purchase price because Lot 31 did not contain the springs. In the meantime, however, in 1853 Sweet had purchased Lot 32 on the north side of his property, apparently acquiring the springs in this transaction. When he mortgaged the three lots in 1858 they were described as "Situated at the San Antonio Spring at the head of the San Antonio River".

Sweet built a stone house on Lot 31, now part of the Incarnate Word grounds, and it became known as the "Old Sweet Place." By 1859 his holdings grew to include five other lots for a total of 108 acres.  In 1869 the entire acreage was sold to Isabella H. Brackenridge, mother of George W. Brackenridge, for $4,500.

Shortly after Brackenridge's purchase, the question of who should own the Head of the River became a controversial and emotional one.  George W. Brackenridge was also a civic leader and philanthropist, and he believed the city should own the Springs. They had become contaminated by outhouses and garbage, typhoid fever and malaria were rampant in San Antonio, and there was a developing awareness of the link between sanitation and disease.  The year 1866 brought a devestating cholera epidemic, and the community realized it desperately needed a method of water distribution that would eliminate the possibility of contamination.  Many schemes were advanced, discussed and discarded.  Brackenridge offered 217 acres, including the Sweet property and adjoining acreage that he owned, to the city for $50,000, providing the city would "never again sell the headwaters." In 1873, while Brackenridge's proposal was in negotiations, a definitive attempt to organize a company and build a water works was made by George M. Maverick, but it failed. Brackenridge's proposal was abandoned in November 1874, after almost three years of negotiations, because the parties could not reconcile the sale price.  Another attempt to organize a water works was made in 1875 by H. B. Adams, but it too failed (McLean, 1924).

Finally, in 1877, the city gave a contract to J. B. LaCoste and his associates for supplying the city with water from the Head of the River.  The San Antonio Water Supply Company built a raceway and a pumphouse on Brackenridge's property a half-mile below the Blue Hole, and a reservoir was constructed on the hill near the eastern end of Mahncke Park, where the San Antonio Botanical Center is located today.  Water falling from the end of the raceway had sufficient force to operate a large turbine which was connected to plunger pumps, forcing water uphill to the reservoir, where it was distributed by gravity to taps in people's yards (at that time, there was no indoor plumbing). The pumphouse is still standing in Brackenridge Park.

The pumphouse built by the San Antonio Water Supply Company to move springflows to a reservoir where the San Antonio Botanical Center is located today.

Whereas the water works developers had expected hundreds of people to sign up for service, the number was in the tens, and they disposed of their unprofitable assets to George W.  Brackenridge in 1883.  Under his direction and foresight, the struggling Water Works Company was built into a valuable property.  By 1885, Brackenridge foresaw the possibility of the original plant being insufficient to meet the city's growing needs, and he purchased property along the River about a mile downstream where he built a second raceway and pumping plant to move spring waters to the reservoir. 

In 1886 Brackenridge built a large three-story addition to the Sweet house that became known as Brackenridge Villa, and he called his estate Fern Ridge.  In 1890, William Corner's guide book to San Antonio declared:

...without doubt one of the most beautiful, if not the most beautiful, places in Texas, its woodland grace and parklike beauty so heightened by the perpetual mystery of its profound and noble springs.  This is the Head of the River.  There are other fine properties in this neighborhood with exceptional water advantages and privileges, but this property was really the key to the situation, the Ojo de Agua, the birthright of the city (Corner, 1890).

In 1888, from his observations of the wildly fluctuating springflows, Brackenridge became convinced there was danger of complete failure of the Springs as a source of supply.  In 1889 and 1890, he drilled large artesian wells into the Edwards Aquifer, some of the first Edwards wells, and springflows became much less important as a water supply source.

In the Gay 90s, the area around the headwaters was best known as a park. A small dam was constructed, creating a wide and very long lake that was San Antonio's favorite Sunday afternoon rest spot. Francis Huff (1946) wrote:

The gayest memories of Alamo Heights in the 90s and the early 1900s seem to be associated with the park and lake at the Head of the River. A small rock dam had been thrown across the stream, which made a lake where the Halff barns now [1946] are. It reached from the 'big spring' to a point above the present dam, and was a hundred or so feet wide, and two or three feet in depth. Boating and picnicking - especially by moonlight - were favorite sports. It is interesting by the way to see pictures of lovely young girls capably negotiating the steep drop to the lakeside park in their frilly summer dresses. The "Head of the River' was San Antonio's Sunday-afternoon vacation land.

By the late 1890's, flows at San Antonio Springs had been drastically reduced by the drilling of numerous additional Edwards wells and a long drought. Brackenridge could not watch it happen, nor do anything about it, so he determined to dispose of his property. He wrote:

This river is my child, and it is dying and I cannot stay to see its last gasps.  It is probably caused by the sinking of many artesian wells.  I have paid thousands of dollars for legal opinions on the question of stopping boring of the wells, but they all say I have no remedy - and I must go (Williams, 1921).

Brackenridge sold 280 acres including the San Antonio Springs to the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word for $120,000, and in 1899 his Water Works Company donated 343.73 acres of land for the establishment of Brackenridge Park.

This very rare postcard mailed in 1910 shows that flows at the Head of the River had been drastically reduced from prior decades when the site was San Antonio's Sunday-afternoon vacation land. History failed to record what Fred Alter was expecting. On the back of the card, he wrote to his mother: "Nothing doing" yet. Got fooled some way. Have expected it every day since the first. All as well as can be expected. Cold wave predicted for tonight. Funeral with 62 rigs just passed - pretty long. See you later.

The Springs today

Brackenridge was right in his predictions about the headwaters.  Due to increasing withdrawals from the Edwards Aquifer, springflows became intermittent and meager. By the early 1940s, the springs had entered a dormancy that lasted 30 years.  In 1973, after months of drenching rains, excited news reports detailed how "the city's Sleeping Beauty, otherwise known as the San Antonio River, woke up" (San Antonio Light, July 25, 1977).  Many San Antonians got their first look at the outflows that were so important to San Antonio's first 200 years:

Like old, bearded Rip Van Winkle the once main headwaters of the San Antonio River have awakened from a deep sleep on the Incarnate Word College campus. And it's all happening to the disbelief of IWC administrators, students and longtime city residents. "Last week that pretty little river woke up to the delighted surprise of everyone here at the college," said public relations man Dick McCracken.

The newspapers asked residents to send in their remembrances of the old days when numerous springs flowed in the San Antonio River and Olmos Creek, and Seguin resident Lena Dittmar Buerger responded: 

My father, the late Herman Dittmar, was engineer for Col. Brackenridge.  We lived in the park near the upper pump.  My father used to take us to a big spring in back of Incarnate Word College that was known as 'the blue hole.' He had to measure the depth of the water and we were always warned not to go too near because it was bottomless.  Whenever there was a fire in San Antonio, a very large bell on our front porch rang.  Then one of us - father if he was there, mother or one of us kids - would take a telescope and watch the water level in the reservoir on Government Hill.  If it fell to a certain level, we had to start the auxiliary pumps.

Today, none of the San Antonio Springs flow except during periods of extreme rainfall. The River is kept alive by withdrawals of water from wells in Brackenridge Park and by discharges of recycled water.

The Head of the River is still the home of the University of the Incarnate Word, managed by the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity. In 2008 they formed The Headwaters Coalition, a non-profit, sponsored ministry dedicated to spreading an ecological ethic and protecting one of the last undeveloped forests in San Antonio, 53 acres adjoining Olmos Creek, including the Blue Hole.

The Blue Hole is still revered as sacred. Dave Orchard reported that native peoples conducted ceremonies involving the placement of precious objects near the Springs or in the Springs themselves, and that tradition continues to this day.

San Antonio Springs Photo gallery

Parking lot springs
	During very rainy times, springs pop up all over the Incarnate Word campus, such as these two appearing from under pavement. The Blue Hole is immediately behind the fence in the background of the photo on the left. The photos were taken in the summer of 2007 after long, intense rains.

Swimming hole at Hildebrand Ave.
	Thousands of San Antonians drive past this swimming hole every day without realizing this was once a Sunday afternoon focal point for the community.  Located in Brackenridge Park just a few hundred yards from the main spring of the San Antonio Springs complex on the Incarnate Word College campus. The head of the Upper Labor acequia is at the downstream tip of the pool.

Spanish Colonial Dam

In 1996 archaeologists uncovered remnants of the Spanish colonial dam at the swimming hole that diverted water to the Upper Labor acequia. The dam was built around 1776 to divert springwaters and streamflow from Olmos Creek down the acequia to irrigate San Antonio's early farmlands.  In the photo at right the head of the canal is in the upper right corner. The dam was re-covered and there is a picnic table over it now.

Well beneath Hildebrand Ave.

For many decades, the entire dry-weather flow of the San Antonio River was derived from Edwards wells in Brackenridge Park and the San Antonio Zoo.  This one is directly underneath the Hildebrand Ave. bridge, at the top of the swimming hole pictured above. In June of 2000, the San Antonio Water System began discharging recycled water in Brackenridge Park so several Edwards well could be cut off, thereby conserving Edwards supplies and helping maintain springflows at Comal and San Marcos Springs. Although unused, this old well leaked when artesian pressure was high, so it was plugged in July of 2008.

Well in Brackenridge Park

This well just east of Lambert Beach in Brackenridge Park was also shut off when the flow of recycled water to the River began in June 2000. It is now enclosed in a building and maintained in working order in case there is an emergency need to release water to the River. There is a third well in the San Antonio Zoo, the Hippo Well, that still flows because potable Edwards water is needed for the hippos and other animals. The Hippo Well contributes about three million gallons per day to flow in the San Antonio River.

San Antonio River bed, dry
	The bed of the San Antonio River as it usually looks. This photo was taken just a short distance downstream from the Blue Hole.

San Antonio River bed, flowing

The same stretch of the San Antonio River near Incarnate Word College in the spring of '92, an especially wet year when many of the Springs flowed again. This photo shows the confluence of flows from the Blue Hole (above) with flows from springs scattered upstream in the Olmos Basin (entering from left). The Olmos Basin in which the City of San Antonio grew up probably had as many springs as any place in the world. They are all almost always dry now, except during extremely wet years when they reassert themselves and flow up through the slabs of buildings and into basements.

Turbid springflows
	Flows from San Antonio Springs can sometimes be very turbid and cloudy, such as seen here in the summer of 2007 when the Aquifer almost reached a record high.

Discharge of wells from Brackenridge Park
	When it was taken in 1991, this photo represented the discharge of several Edwards wells in Brackenridge Park used to maintain flow in the downtown San Antonio River Walk. Today, most of the dry-weather flow of the River here is recycled water from the San Antonio Water System's Dos Rios plant

Olmos Dam
	An old postcard showing another view of the Olmos Dam, about a mile above San Antonio Springs. It was constructed after a series of disastrous floods in 1917-1921 took many lives and caused widespread devastation in downtown San Antonio. Construction mostly destroyed what was probably the largest and most important Native American campground in Bexar county.

San Pedro Creek / San Antonio River confluence
	This is the confluence of San Pedro Creek (entering from the left) and the San Antonio River, the two streams vividly described by Richard Everett in 1859. Photo by William Hudson.

Postcards from Brackenridge Park

One of the early scenic drives in Brackenridge Park
	After George W. Brackenridge's donation of land to create the park, one of the first improvements was a series of drives totaling seven miles, designed by Parks Commissioner Ludwig Mahncke.

Herd of elk in the San Antonio River at Brackenridge Park.
	By 1902, there was a fenced deer preserve and enclosures for buffalo and elk. Animals were pastured along River Avenue near today’s Lions Field, and were fed with hay raised in an adjacent pasture.

San Antonio River in Brackenridge Park, around 1920
	A tranquil scene in the Park around 1920. The swans were a popular attraction and appear in many postcards.

View of the San Antonio River in Brackenridge Park
	A colorful view of the River in Brackenridge Park, never mailed.

Swans in Brackenridge Park
	Mailed on April 26, 1911 to Miss Emma Kopjolin in Cibolo, Texas, the back of the postcard says: Dear Emma: I don't know if I answered your last postal or not. Was you in town for the carnival? I had a pretty nice time at the carnival. Give my love to Eva. Love from Ella. The 'carnival' probably refers to San Antonio's week-long Fiesta celebration, held during the latter part of April each year.

Lovers Lane footbridge in Brackenridge Park
	Published by Paul Ebers in San Antonio and never mailed. Probably produced around 1920. The caption on the back says: One of the seclusive spots which, with the lovers' lane, is known best to all park visitors.

Sunken Gardens in Brackenridge Park

Ray Lambert succeeded Ludwig Mahncke as Parks Commissioner, and his greatest dream was to convert an abandoned quarry on the western edge of the park into a lily pond. In 1917, he set out to accomplish his goal using prison labor and meager resources. Local residents donated exotic plants, and the "Japanese Garden" as the area was called, was hailed in national publications as a unique attraction. In 2008 the Sunken Gardens reopened after a long hiatus. Volunteers worked thousands of hours to restore the Gardens to their former splendor.

Sunken Gardens Theatre in Brackenridge Park
	The caption on the back says: The Sunken Garden in Brackenridge Park is one of the show places of America.  It was an old abandoned rock quarry, but man and nature have made of it a beautiful sight.  A tea garden, managed by expert Japanese, is situated at the Garden so the visitor may refresh himself and view the beauties of the Garden at the same time.

Sunken Gardens in Brackenridge Park
	In the 1960s, my family made several trips to San Antonio to visit family. The Sunken Gardens was considered a "must do". The caption on the back of the card says: One of the prettiest sights in San Antonio. Visited by thousands of tourists annually.

Sunken Gardens in Brackenridge Park

This view of the pagoda was a very popular one. The back of the postcard says: The Sunken Garden in Brackenridge Park is one of the show places of America.  It was an old abandoned rock quarry, but man and nature have made of it a beautiful sight.  A tea garden, managed by expert Japanese, is situated at the Garden so the visitor may refresh himself and view the beauties of the Garden at the same time.

Sunken Gardens in Brackenridge Park

Yet another view of the same scene by a fourth publisher. The caption says: The Sunken Garden in Brackenridge Park can be reached over the Alpine Drive. Here one can see the Lily Pool, Japanese Tea Gardens and many varieties of flowers. This park was donated to the city by Col. George Brackenridge and contains 363 acres. It has Public Playgrounds, a Golf Course, Bathing Beach, Tennis Courts, a Zoological Gardens and many other things.